These food trucks are ditching noisy, smelly, polluting generators—and going electric

When a food truck called Theo’s Gyros pulls up outside a neighborhood pub in Seattle, customers now notice what’s missing: They no longer hear the hum of a generator while they eat at a table nearby.

The food truck is one of dozens across the country to recently switch from generators to silent, modular battery systems that power equipment. Joule Case, the company that makes the battery tech, first started selling the systems at events and music festivals. When the pandemic began, it pivoted to food trucks, realizing that there was an opportunity to eliminate the noise, smell, and pollution from the generators that food trucks typically use.

“Food trucks are starting to realize that if they’re quiet and they’re not spewing diesel fumes, they can get more business,” says Joule Case CEO James Wagoner. Many also want to make the switch for environmental reasons. A single ice cream truck with a diesel generator emits the equivalent of burning 83 pounds of coal a day, according to Wagoner. (Diesel generators also emit toxic air pollutants including carbon monoxide, particulate matter, and nitrogen oxide.)

Theo’s Gyros happened to use a propane generator, so it was cleaner than a diesel generator and quieter. But his customers had still complained about the noise. And most food trucks rely on either diesel or gas generators. For them, batteries can have an even bigger impact, both for customers and for employees.

“Not having that diesel generator generating fumes that are coming into the back of the truck is a much better situation for our employees,” says Eric Murphy, founder of Scream Truck, a group of on-demand ice cream trucks on the East Coast that has converted about half of its fleet to use batteries instead of generators. It plans to convert the rest, as well as to switch to electric vehicles.

The ice cream truck company, which travels to events or makes deliveries in neighborhoods (people order by text, rather than running out to the sound of the ice cream jingle), uses the batteries to run its power-hungry soft-serve machines, air-conditioning, and other equipment on six of its trucks. At the end of the day, when the trucks park in a warehouse, they plug in to charge the batteries.

Batteries are more reliable than generators, Murphy says. “Probably half of [our generators] were breaking down at least once every 60 days,” he says. “One of them we had to completely rebuild, and that truck was out for seven days—it cost tens of thousands of dollars to have that truck off the road, plus the expense of repairing it.” Theo’s Gyros had similar problems with its propane generator.

The battery system costs about two and a half times more than a generator, Murphy says, but because of the savings on fuel and repairs, it’s possible to pay that back within a year.

“In the long run, it definitely saves a ton of money,” says Stefano Theo, owner of Theo’s Gyros. Businesses can also get tax credits for the switch through the Inflation Reduction Act, and some states and cities offer other incentives. Some cities are also starting to limit where food trucks with generators can operate, giving food trucks another reason to make the switch.

Because the system is modular, Joule Case adjusts the design for each truck’s needs. “A taco truck has a much different energy and power profile than a big coffee truck or an ice cream truck,” Wagoner says.

So far, around 100 food trucks have installed the company’s batteries. There are roughly 35,000 food trucks operating in the U.S., so there’s much further to go—and the company also wants to supply equipment to other workers who rely on generators, like construction crews. Over the next five years, the aim is to convert 2,000 trucks, eliminating around half a million tons of CO2 emissions.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90964731/these-food-trucks-are-ditching-noisy-smelly-polluting-generators-and-going-electric?partner=rss&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss